A Maryland family reflects on New York's reaction to passage of gay marriage

Last week, our family visited New York City on vacation. As we left our hotel Sunday to come back to Maryland, we got caught up in the crowds watching the city's Gay Pride Parade. It was quite an experience. The night before, the New York State Assembly had passed, and the governor had signed into law, a bill guaranteeing marriage equality, so the crowd was in especially high spirits. The parade, as might be expected, was quite entertaining, but what impressed us the most were the spectators. Lined up five and eight deep along Fifth Avenue was a cross-section of the city's population cheering on the gay and lesbian marchers, the politicians who had pushed the bill to passage and all the straight participants who marched with them to show support for their gay neighbors, co-workers, friends and family members. The New York Police Department band was in the parade and so was a contingent fromNew York Fire Department.

In the crowd along the avenue were old people and young and folks across the ethnic spectrum as well as families and out-of-town tourists like ourselves. What seemed to most invigorate both the marchers and the watchers was a sense that American freedom had once again triumphed, and small-minded bigotry had been pushed further into the past.

As we drove back to Maryland, we realized that our state now has an opportunity to be one of the leaders in this movement toward what will eventually be accepted across the country as a fundamental human right. It's time now for us all to step up to the plate and make a real difference.